Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, October 15, 2014,
Having returned from Sydney to live in my hometown of Perth back in mid 2010, I've noticed some big changes, many of which I've been posting about on this blog. One of the most alarming has been the sheer scope of the
meth problem in this city.
Of course you don't tend to see evidence of it directly most of the time -- although that
does happen occasionally. You get a sense of it mainly from news reports of exploding labs, burglaries, drug busts and crazed acts of violence. With so much eviden...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, July 6, 2014,
Alannah MacTiernan isn't the only Labor politician moving alarmingly
to the green left. There are clearly others in WA Labor who've been afflicted with this tendency, including the leader Mark McGowan. His endorsement of
medical marijuana is a case in point.
I have no strong feelings about this proposed policy. If it helps people who are suffering, great. But he should remember that a big chunk of the population have a strong emotional reaction when it comes to the issue of drugs. It doesn't ...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, November 23, 2012,
Not only have Perth trains become increasingly crowded in the last few years, but a high proportion of commuters feel unsafe on them,
particularly at night.
The number of passengers who felt unsafe at night jumped from 23 to 28 per cent - including nearly half of all Armadale patrons interviewed and nearly one-third of all Midland patrons.
Four in five commuters identified drunks and drug users as the biggest safety threat at night.This survey measured commuters' perception of risk, so it was ...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, September 12, 2012,
A website that rates the relative quality of different batches of
ecstasy is proving to be very popular with users of the drug in this city. While the site's stated intention is to aid the process of harm minimization, medical authorities
are appalled by it.
It doesn't surprise me that this site gets a lot of traffic from Perth. There are obviously a lot of users here. And they often turn to the internet to find drug related information.
I've learned this from the traffic stats to this site. ...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, August 16, 2012,
A thought on the ATM explosions that have been
occurring of late: Such events are happening with increasing frequency. They often occur in twos, sometimes within hours.
This is reminiscent of the ram raiding of pharmacies. In these smash and grab robberies, thieves steal as much cold and flu medication as possible for use in making meth, a drug that's having a really bad effect on many people in this city. (When I was living in Yokine, there was an occasion in which three of them were hit. The...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, April 29, 2012,
Perth has a real problem with drug abuse in general and
"ice" in particular. It seems that not a week goes by without at least one clandestine meth lab exploding in a house or unit somewhere out in the suburbs.
And you do see a surprising number of people who seem to be under the influence of the drug, or ravaged by its long term use. I was on a bus into the city a few months ago and this very wound-up young guy got on. My first thought was that he was high on meth. And sure enough he soon sta...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, March 30, 2012,
Here's more confirmation of the increasing
violence in Perth: The state government is launching a massive, coordinated
anti-violence campaign:
The plan, backed by more than 30 agencies across health, education, corrective services and police sectors, calls for more health nurses to help troubled children, compulsory alcohol and drug education in schools and more public transport after midnight to stop loitering.
It singles out alcohol as a major cause of violence and calls for tighter controls ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, October 27, 2011,
One alarming social phenomenon that has been getting a lot of justifiable media coverage in Perth lately is the rise in drug use in general and the "ice" epidemic in particular. Not only are more and more people using this hugely powerful and damaging drug, but many are making it in makeshift labs in the suburbs of Perth. These seem to explode at almost regular intervals.
Related to this are the numerous robberies of various shops that occur from time to time. I'm not sure exactly how many ar...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, August 25, 2011,
Having actually lived in Maylands some years ago I immediately took notice of the news of a gruesome double murder in
that suburb. My immediate assumption was that it was drug related and that seems to have been the case. Apparently the perpetrator was a heroin addict who had recently managed to kick his addiction, then relapsed.
Sadly, Maylands does seem to be one of the Perth suburbs where these terrible events occur comparatively often. I assumed it happened somewhere on the eastern side of...
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